Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, May 3, 1995                   TAG: 9505030031
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-1   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: BRIAN KELLEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG                                LENGTH: Medium

BOUNDARIES PLAYING ROLE IN RADFORD HOSPITAL CHOICE|

Both sites remain on the table, though, and a decision should be made within a month, according to Michael J. Gates of W.R. Adams Co. Inc., which is helping Radford Community choose. Hospital spokeswoman Susan Lockwood said Tuesday an announcement has been pushed back from May 19 to the end of the month at the earliest.

Site No. 1, first announced five years ago, is on the west side of Virginia 177 between Radford and Interstate 81. Site No. 2, disclosed in December, is south of I-81 off Barn and Tyler roads.

The issue for Radford Community still is balancing the cost of grading the steep terrain at site No. 1 vs. the expense of extending water and sewer lines the extra distance to site No. 2, Gates said.

But another factor complicates matters at the second site: jurisdictional boundaries relating to the Virginia 177 Corridor Agreement. Those boundaries cover water and sewer service, tax-revenue sharing and zoning rules. Water, sewer and taxes are at issue.

The agreement, OK'd in 1993 by county voters and the two governments, is designed to guide growth along the gateway to Radford University. The city gave up any attempt to annex the area from the county in return for a 27.5 percent cut of local taxes generated there.

A corner of hospital site No. 2 is outside the water and tax-sharing boundary, and about half of it is outside the sewer-service boundary.

Hospital planners resolved the first issue by turning the building layout by about 12 degrees so all of the building was inside the corridor, Gates said. That prevented any potential disagreements between the city and the county over whether an area outside the corridor could receive water and sewer service from inside it, while not providing any tax benefit to Radford.

Resolving the second complication will take action by the Peppers Ferry Regional Wastewater Treatment Authority.

In an April 17 letter, hospital president Lester Lamb asked the Montgomery County Public Service Authority to consider enlarging the boundary for sewer service so it would conform to the water and tax-sharing boundary.

On Monday, the Montgomery service authority agreed to ask the Peppers Ferry treatment authority to extend the boundary.

Montgomery buys sewage service for the Virginia 177 and Plum Creek areas from the Peppers Ferry authority, which has a sewage-treatment plant on the New River in Pulaski County north of Virginia 114.

Charles Maus, executive director with the Peppers Ferry authority, said the change could be resolved by July if it's discussed at a meeting next week and the authority agrees to advertise the proposal.

Bringing the sewer boundary into accord with the water and tax-sharing lines would simplify administration without requiring a referendum or other extraordinary steps, said Roy Thorpe, Montgomery's county attorney.